Van Halen Frontman Talks New Album

12/2/2013

Van Halen Frontman Talks New Album -

In a recent interview with US satellite radio station SiriusXM, Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth revealed that the Dutch/American hard rockers are in the very early stages of writing their new album, with audio recordings of the session already available.

"I was up at (guitarist) Edward (Van Halen)'s house, maybe three days ago - just before I came here to the city - and we're starting to put music together,” Roth told Ozzy’s Boneyard host Jim Florentine.

“Not to give away exactly what the package will be, it's gonna be about 18 months, I think.”

“We start way, way, way in advance, 'cause we are eminently art-centric, which is a really fancy way of saying we really do generate all the artwork, the graphics, etc.,” he continued. “We don't hire out and have somebody design a bunch of album covers for us and then choose.... we start from scratch ourselves. Same thing with the merchandise - if you buy a t-shirt, that was designed, literally, in my living room. On and on... stage design, lighting rig, putting the show together - it takes about a year and a half, 18 months, because any idea that you have is 85 phone calls. Anybody can go, 'I got an idea, it's a stage that's shaped like, uh, like a square on top of a circle'. Great, my question never was, 'were you able to dream up a stage design', my question is, 'are you prepared to do the 87 phone calls that are about to follow now, to make sure it came out the way we decided'. And then there's another 80 phone calls that are gonna follow that because we have to figure out how to take the fuckin' thing apart and put it in the trucks and buses. And, and, and. So if you really want to generate the ideas from scratch and bring them all the way to the finish, you're gonna have to learn a few other languages, and you're gonna have to speak those over a lot of extra phone calls. And that's usually the break point for most artists.”

Roth went to explain that the band have been more than active while away from the road and the media spotlight.

"Oh, yeah, we're writing,” he says.

“I write lyrics routinely. It's a perishable skill. And the band plays together routinely, at least three times a week. They’re up at Ed’s place, routinely.”